The National Australia Bank says it has terminated its deal to buy the Australian and New Zealand branches of wealth management firm AXA Asia Pacific.

The move comes after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's (ACCC) decision last week to block NAB's $13 billion takeover proposal for a second time.

That sent NAB and AXA Asia Pacific back to the drawing board, with the bank proposing to onsell AXA AP's 'North' investment platform to funds manager IOOF to alleviate the ACCC's concerns that NAB would dominate the investment platform market if the takeover were allowed.

The competition watchdog says it has considered information from a range of industry participants, including financial planners, dealer groups and investment product providers.

It says the weight of the evidence showed that NAB's undertakings and the sale of North would not be enough to guarantee a competitive restraint on a merged NAB-AXA.

NAB says continuing with the agreement would not be in the best interests of its shareholders.

It leaves AMP as the only party interested in acquiring AXA Asia Pacific's Australian and New Zealand businesses.

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